Excellent, Paul!Dow’s book is wonderful – even uses a kind of’munsell’ system when he gets to color near the end!There is one book that should be mentioned and added to the arsenal for landscapes: Edgar Payne’s Compostion of Outdoor Painting.It was originally distributed by DeRue’s Fine Art 1590 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, CA 92651 Ph# 949-376-3785.
Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne This is a well-loved book. It is a great a compilation of different compositional designs and as it relates to the landscape. However all of the concepts can be applied to still life and portraiture. I have read through the book multiple times. Edgar Payne is one of my favorite artist's and a huge inspiration to my own work. Here I analyze and share my thoughts on some of his work.Tutorials Availabl.
Don’t know if they are still available new or if this gallery is still in business, but worth keeping an eye open for it. It is one of my treasures though I haven’t done much with it yet!You’ve given lots of things to do during the first weeks of the new year, Paul – thanks!Best Wishes for a very Happy Christmas and 2011 to you and Michelle!
Hi Marsha,Thanks for the good wishes, and the same to you and Steve.Thanks also for the link to landscape composition book. It’s got some excellent.
One review recommends contacting the who might still have new copies available.The next time I post on composition (there’s going to be a couple more unrelated posts first) I’ll start laying out the exercises themselsves. If you wasnt something to keep you busy in the new year, there should be plenty there 🙂Hi Tracey,Thanks for the URL for. That has incredible 57 reviews on Amazon with a 5.5. Seems to be going down very well. Hi Paul,I think the intuition or rules idea is a false opposition. In reality the “rules” are created after the fact, thats to say they are the distillation of a lot of very talented peoples’ intuition, or natural design sense. If you happen not to have a highly developed sense of design you can get help from the “rules” whilst trying to develop one but its not an either/or situation.
The intersting thing about your experimental painting from a design point of view for me was that the longer I looked at it the better it got, a pattern seemed to emerge as it were from the chaos. The weaknesses, such as they are, are more the result of a lack of sufficient variety in hue and chroma, ie too much of the painting is grey,or perhaps just that the higher chroma areas are too dispersed, which merely serves to highlight that all the elements of design contribute to composition and weakness in one area can be enough to negate strength in others. Merry Xmas to you Jon, all the best to you and yours 🙂I think you’re right about titles – it could be that a title influences the way a viewer looks at a painting more than all the compositional tricks and focus techniques we might try! Mine usually read like a list of the objects in the painting “Still Life with blah blah blah and blah.” Maybe I should try getting a bit more poetic with them and I might sell more 🙂Hi David,”I think the intuition or rules idea is a false opposition.”That isn’t quite what I was saying, to be fair.
I was contrasting the geometrical (as advocated by Aristides and others) with the intuitive (as advocated by Dow) approach to composition. For a clearer idea of how those two approaches differ, I’d recommend reading both books if you haven’t already. What I mean by intuition, if I didn’t explain it clearly enough above, is the repeated practicing of a skill until it becomes second nature – unconscious, if you like.”the “rules” arethe distillation of a lot of very talented peoples’ intuition, or natural design sense”I think we have a fundamental difference in mind set here. I approach any skill, particularly those required for painting and drawing, with the conviction that it can be learned and developed with sufficient helpings of commitment, hard work and practice. Everything I do is based on that belief. It sounds to me that you’re suggesting that some people have a natural, innate sense of design, and the rest of us, mere mortals not blessed with this gift, must depend on rules and formulas deduced from the work of greater artists than ourselves.If that is what you’re saying, then with respect I must disagree.
I know that it’s possible to improve our ability to judge shape and accuracy of drawing, judge and translate values, judge and mix the colours we see, because I’ve done so. When people see those particular skills done well, they’re inclined to explain it as talent because they haven’t seen the long hours of practice it took to develop them.
I have a long way to go still with all those skills, but on all counts I’ve seen significant improvement in my own work through long hours of practice and continued assessment and reassessment of the ways I practice. I don’t see why design and composition should be any different.Of course I have times when I feel I’m not progressing, and we’re all assailed by doubts at times – maybe even despair occasionally. But experience and long hours at the easel have shown me that we can improve beyond what we thought possible if we apply ourselves in the right way. I think it’s not enough just to work hard though. We need to find effective ways to practice, and that mostly comes through trial and error in my experience, taking what you can find and homing it until it fits with what you’re trying to achieve.
I’m just applying what has already worked for me before to an new area.Hi Margaret,Lots of questions, yes, and one’s which will take some time to answer I think, at least for me. I’m glad you liked the post.Thanks for the link to the Swiss grid article, I hadn’t heard of it before. Is that something you use much in your own work? Thanks John, that is a really interesting thread. It’s a bit, um, esoteric at times for me though 🙂I think the idea of carving versus modelling that it starts with is very interesting though. If I understand the point right, it’s the difference conceptually between figures or objects standing in deep illusional space, e.g. Carravagio say, and the whole of the surface of the picture being a part of the overall design, like Brangwyn, or the naturalist painters that they’ve posted.
Interesting that (I think it was) Kev Ferrara mentioned one being more western and one more eastern. Right on the money and most perceptive. I’d be inclined to agree with that I think. I wonder if the Naturalist painters were aware of eastern art? I wonder if they’d seen Japanese prints?The timing would certainly be right.
Given that they were influenced heavily by Bastien-Lepage, I wonder of he himself had seen and was influenced by Japanese art? (must look that up)Thanks John, most interesting, and very much on theme I think. Interesting information here.
Thank you for taking the time to wade through all this material. You deserve a medal:-)Way back in college I had a fine art teacher who was old school. He didn’t believe in rules for composition because as you noted, everyone perceives thing differently. What he stressed though was for us to learn to discover our own sense of balance or harmony. This was especially useful for still life comps and I later made a whole career out of his advice in commercial art.
What he had us do was to pick out 4-5 paintings out of about 50 he had that we felt had that sense of harmony. Then he gave us those same paintings back but they had been turned to black and white and blurred. We were then suppose to discover the ‘design’ of the piece. For some it was the darks or lights they drew the design from others it was shapes.
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Edgar Payne Pdf
For me I was drawn to darks in 3 seperate triangular patterns and amazingly it did follow this pattern for each one I picked out. The person next to me might have picked out the same painting but discovered a totally different pattern. My professor stated that everyone has a sense of balance, it’s just a matter of discovering what it is that we each perceive that makes sense.
Edgar Payne Paintings Value
Of course once I saw what my classmate saw I also perceived that design as well. It’s given me a place to start when setting up a still life or cropping a pic. I know what will please me personally. When I have strayed from my own personal sense is when I find I don’t like the comp. It really does work.
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Once again, thank you for posting all this information. I know many artists will find this information so help.
Edgar Alwin Payne (1883-1947) was born in Missouri but was raised in Arkansas. At the age of 26 he went to California, discovering and falling in love with Laguna Beach…later to settle there for a time with his wife, Elsie. He met Elsie in San Francisco during that first California visit and later in Chicago where she was a commercial artist. They were married in 1912. As the story goes, on the day of the wedding, the morning light in Chicago was so beautiful that Edgar wanted the ceremony delayed until later in the day so he would have time to capture that light in paint.
In 1918 the couple moved to Laguna Beach, becoming influential in the community. Edgar was instrumental in forming the Laguna Beach Art Association and became its first president.
His favorite subject, the California Sierra Nevada Mountains, are represented in some of his most famous paintings. The Sierra’s also inspired his very popular book, which was published in 1941…“Composition of Outdoor Painting”. It’s a comprehensive and instructive book on composition and composition forms. The book also explains landscape painting techniques, color, repetition, rhythm, and value.
Here are a few important insights from this great painter concerning preliminary compositional work:
Importance of preliminary work
“In starting the actual arrangements on the canvas, the placing of the horizon or other main lines, and the largest dark and light masses or spaces, is the first consideration. Then the secondary, tertiary and other masses may be placed in whatever location gives the best balance.
“If the student will adopt the habit of putting much time on the preliminary compositional pencil sketches – the preparation for painting – he will have gained aid that will benefit him as long as he paints.
“While any amount of effort may be put into the preliminary notes, the actual work on the picture should go along without a hitch. The less effort, the more pleasure and finer quality.”
Edgar Payne – “High Country-High Sierras” – 12″ x 16″ – Oil
No one is on the road to success until he feels at times that he is entirely beaten.
“Real advancement generally comes from studying and experimenting with one problem until it is mastered.”
Carefully consider the composition.
“Anyone gets into difficulties often enough without attempting to compose with a poorly considered first plan. Often the painter who has not gone into preliminary study of his subject may find after the work is well under way that his horizon is too much centered, or a vertical edge or line divides the canvas in half. Perhaps he has two points of interest, several equal masses or spaces…one or more of the many errors that cause discord and spoils unity.
“The idea in any composing is to get the work to a sense of completion as soon as possible and then proceed with a feeling that the work may be left off at any time. As a matter of fact, many good pictures are ruined by constant striving to make them better.
“There is always a place to stop painting. This is the point where the maximum quality has been achieved.
“The practice of painting in a broad impressionistic manner is best brought out with considerable preliminary planning, and then painting the picture rapidly.”
Want the book? Here’s thelink.
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